Mid‑Shore Behavioral Health outlines $26M in regional grants, reports increased school‑based services and crisis activity

Mid‑Shore Behavioral Health leaders presented an annual update to Queen Anne's County Commissioners on May 26, outlining regional programs, funding flows and local impacts.

Chief Executive Officer Katie Dilly told commissioners the agency oversees nearly $26 million in state and federal grant funds that support crisis response, recovery, specialty services, homelessness supports and expanded child and adolescent services across the Mid‑Shore region. Dilly said program highlights include a regional crisis operations center (8,435 calls in FY25; 3,671 calls in the first six months of FY26), increasing mobile crisis dispatches in Queen Anne's County (70 in FY25 and 60 so far in FY26), and school‑based expansion through coordinated community supports. "We are right around close to 26 million in grant funds," Dilly said.

Sarah Fagan highlighted the school‑based work: the consortium funded programs have served roughly 1,025 students in Queen Anne's County across tiers of support (education/community interventions through Tier 1 to intensive Tier 3 one‑on‑one clinical support). Dilly also described regional suicide prevention efforts, a gun‑safety initiative distributing more than 900 gun locks to date, peer‑specialist workforce training grants and a planned assisted‑outpatient treatment rollout on the Shore slated for July 1 as part of a state pilot.

Commissioners voted to sign a FY27 letter of agreement with Mid‑Shore Behavioral Health to continue the county's relationship as the core service agency and to allow ongoing funding and program oversight.

Officials said the region continues to press for stable funding and has applied for competitive rural health transformation funds for initiatives including mobile treatment expansion, suicide prevention and diversion programs to serve people with behavioral health needs in the criminal justice system.